Program scripts from week of February 20, 2012
Online Privacy
There’s a lot of talk about privacy online these days. It often results in people running in all directions like their hair is on fire. Sadly this isn’t really helpful or even necessary. On the other hand being aware of the issues is probably not a bad idea.
The conversation tends to break down into two discussions. One is more probably described as confidentiality. And that one is simple. There isn’t any confidentiality online. If you put up a comment or an update let alone a picture or video in all likelihood it can be viewed by pretty much anyone if they really want to see it. The only option is to simply treat the Internet like what it is. A public forum.
On the other hand we have the question of your privacy versus various companies keeping track of where you go and what you do. This has become a major issue over the last couple years. Google, Facebook, Apple plus nearly a dozen publishers including Rodale, Conde Nast, Time, Inc. and Hearst Communications have run afoul of some level of privacy rules. The truth of the matter is that they don’t particularly where you have been, at least not in the sense that worries most people. What they want to do is sell that information to advertisers who will use it to target advertising toward you.
The real problem here is that no one is clear on just how your individual privacy is affected. While the data clearly has value since it is sold the courts have also ruled that web users are not injured by that sale. The bottom line is that most people feel that their business is their business and no one should be using that to create a profit for some other business. In the end it would be great if all web sites and services had specific opt in options for this kind of tracking. It would be even better if that option,either opt in or opt out, was clearly labeled and easy to find.
In the end the reality is that we are responsible for ourselves. And just like the real world the online world can be a difficult place if you don’t take some precautions.
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Social Revolution
The universe of the social media is still very much in a state of flux. Now you may think that as Facebook becomes more a mainstay of our lives that it’s been pretty much settled right? Let’s be honest, aren’t you a little surprised when you find one of your friends or associates that ISN’T on Facebook? Plus it seems like huge numbers of people are on Twitter or LinkedIn or any of a dozen other social media sites. So social media is pretty much mainstream right?
Well maybe not. While it’s a fun thing for lots of us there are still a lot of questions about what the future of social media looks like. Turns out that advertisers still have questions about whether this media can be used effectively long term. And that means that the long term viability of even behemoths like Facebook remains in question. Yes the massive initial public offering of stock looks great but with any investment there is always some risk lurking out there. Remember Facebook has really only been BIG for about 4 years.
All of which brings me to a couple stories that bring a whole new aspect of social media. Two stories that show social media making a real difference in the lives of users.
Late last year a Utah woman used Facebook to get help when she and her 19 month old child were held hostage by an abusive boyfriend. They had been held for 5 days when the woman got on Facebook and posted that she thought she and the child would be dead by morning. Friends contacted police who arrived and rescued her.
On the other side of the planet a village chief in Kenya called his village to action when he received word that criminals had invaded the house of a neighbor. The village uses Twitter to stay in touch. The chief sent out a tweet calling for help. Villagers surrounded the house and drove the criminals off.
In the end it’s just one more example of the still growing utility of social media. Yes it’s a regular part of the lives of a great many of us. At the same time we are only beginning to scratch the surface of what social media might mean in the future.
The only thing that’s guaranteed is that things will change.
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Super Bowl Silliness
I actually commented on today’s topic a couple weeks ago during my post Super Bowl commentaries. At the time I gave it very little attention because, well, that’s what I thought it deserved. But we are now several weeks post Super Bowl and I’m still seeing some folks weeping and wailing about it. So maybe I need to give it a little more attention.
In this case it’s the hand gesture from British recording artist M.I.A. It’s the most recent of what might be called the “Super Bowl Half Time Show Outrages”. You’ve probably heard about it by now. At one point during Madonna’s show (which as a fellow 50 year old I found a little embarrassing for the world’s senior female pop star. The choreography was pretty clearly toned down for an aging body) anyway at one point M.I.A. flipped the bird while on worldwide television. And the talking heads of the world promptly lost their marbles.
Now I want to be clear about this. Just like the Janet Jackson “Wardrobe Malfunction” of 2004 I was watching the half time show. I was specifically watching both shows at the moments in question. And didn’t see anything either time. Both “event” took place in such a short period of time that literally if you blinked or turned away to get another nacho you could miss it. Now this year there was the added furor because NBC had the show on delay so they could edit out just this kind of, um, spontaneous displays. Here’s my bet. It happened so fast and for such a short period of time that the delay operator just missed it. Maybe he blinked at the wrong second. I think we can assume there were no nachos in the control booth.
Was the move stupid and juvenile? Yes it was. In fact both of M.I.A.’s fellow performers on stage at that point of the show have said exactly that. Both Madonna and Nikki Minaj have criticized the move as being inappropriate. And when you step over the line for those two you know you’ve wandered where you don’t need to be.
I have no argument that M.I.A. needs to grow up a little. But the level of hysteria that follows these kinds of minor kerfluffles leads me to believe that maybe some of the rest of us need to do likewise.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
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